Lisa Swerling Glass Cathedrals

“These little worlds make you stop, think, smile and celebrate the human condition. In a world where we daily crush headlong into harsh vicissitudes, how joyful it is to stop and look at ourselves in miniature proportions. We are all human after all.”

Glass Cathedrals are a series of tiny worlds in boxes.

Magical, absurd, comic, tragic, poetic, each box contains a sparkling parallel world, reflecting the poignancy, absurdity and beauty of our own.

The ideas behind the Glass Cathedrals are based on thoughts I have been having since I was a child, and are no less relevant to me today: “What exists beyond the stars? Could glitter be more precious than gold? I’m scared to jump in the water so why do I jump anyway? How can I feel so important and so insignificant at the same time?”

Many people have these moments of inspiration about what it is to be a funny little human travelling around a big planet. What to do with these thoughts? I started putting mine in boxes…

Diorama heaven! The boxes have been a unique platform for my flow of ideas – from the irrepressible human desire to create meaning, to capturing the silliness of life and exploring existential feelings about what it means to be alive. Running through these ideas is a common theme – that opposites can co-exist. Fear and bravery, absurdity and meaning, inside and out, big and small, epic and insignificant. Where they intersect is the place of empathy, mystery and art.

In recent years I have customized hundreds of Glass Cathedrals to capture people, events, places
and memories and they are shown all over the world – a testament to our shared humanity.

I hope my art expresses, and brings out, the best in us.